Lilian puts pressure on George Osborne over Nottingham to Lincol

Lilian Greenwood, Labour MP for Nottingham South and Shadow Rail Minister, has accused George Osborne of raising false hope over better rail services on the Nottingham to Lincoln Line.

During the Newark by-election George Osborne said that he wanted “to see the Nottingham-Newark train service transformed – with double the number of trains and at least one non-stop train to Nottingham every hour.”

However, the growth deals announced this month revealed that local councils would have to fund the improved services for three years before the Government would consider providing support.

“It’s clear that George Osborne raised false hope over improved services between Nottingham, Newark and Lincoln. He was happy to take the credit when there were votes to be won, but two months later the Government is saying that it’s up to local councils to foot the bill.

“It’s brazen hypocrisy to talk about improving infrastructure when £51 million of allocated funding was cut from the line in 2010. Hard pressed commuters deserve honesty, not short-term political gimmicks. This just underlines the fact that the Government has no plan for securing the economic recovery in the East Midlands.”

The fastest Nottingham to Lincoln journey time is 50 minutes, and services travel at an average speed of 39 miles an hour. Before the general election £51 million of investment had been set aside to cut the journey time to 35 minutes by 2015, but the funding was scrapped after 2010.